Between 1990 and 2008, Saxony was divided into the three regions (Regierungsbezirke) of Chemnitz, Dresden, and Leipzig. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke. In 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the {{Interlanguage link multi|Landesdirektion Sachsen|de}}.The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the SÃ¤chsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland and the Eastern Ore Mountains.

Rivers

(File:Sachsen2.gif|thumb|Topography of Saxony)There are numerous rivers in Saxony. The Elbe is the most dominant one. Oder and NeiÃe define the border between Saxony and Poland. Other rivers include the Mulde and the WeiÃe Elster.

Largest cities

{{See also|List of cities in Saxony by population}}The largest cities in Saxony according to the 31 December 2015 estimate are listed below.WEB,weblink BevÃ¶lkerung des Freistaates Sachsen jeweils am Monatsende ausgewÃ¤hlter Berichtsmonate nach Gemeinden, Statistik.sachsen.de, 30 September 2017, 9 August 2018, To this can be added that Leipzig forms a metropolitan-like region with Halle, known as Ballungsraum Leipzig/Halle.WEB,weblink Ballungsraum Leipzig/Halle, Stadtplan.net, Stadtplan.net, 5 November 2018, The latter city is located just across the border of Saxony-Anhalt. Leipzig shares, for instance, an S-train system (known as S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland)WEB,weblink S-Bahn Mitteldeutschland, Deutsche Bahn AG, Unternehmensbereich Personenverkehr, Marketing, eCommerce, S-bahn-mitteldeutschland.de, 5 November 2018, and an airportWEB,weblink Flughafen Leipzig/Halle - Passengers and visitors > Flights > Flights, Leipzig-halle-airport.de, 5 November 2018, with Halle.{{clear left}}{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:right; margin-right:60px "

The Leipzig area, which until recently was among the regions with the highest unemployment rate, could benefit greatly from investments by Porsche and BMW. With the VW Phaeton factory in Dresden, and many parts suppliers, the automobile industry has again become one of the pillars of Saxon industry, as it was in the early 20th century. Zwickau is another major Volkswagen location. Freiberg, a former mining town, has emerged as a foremost location for solar technology. Dresden and some other regions of Saxony play a leading role in some areas of international biotechnology, such as electronic bioengineering. While these high-technology sectors do not yet offer a large number of jobs, they have stopped or even reversed the brain drain that was occurring until the early 2000s in many parts of Saxony. Regional universities have strengthened their positions by partnering with local industries. Unlike smaller towns, Dresden and Leipzig in the past experienced significant population growth.WEB,weblink Arbeitslosenquote in Deutschland nach BundeslÃ¤ndern 2013, De.statista.com, 2013-07-16, File:Luftbild AMD Dresden 2005.jpg|Dresden is the hub of Silicon Saxony.File:Leipzig Ri.-Le.-Str 6.jpg|Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk is one of Germany's public broadcasters.File:DHL Leipzig-Halle.jpg|Leipzig/Halle Airport is the main hub of DHL and the fifth-busiest airport in Europe in terms of cargo traffic.File:Leipzig VNG.jpg|VNG â Verbundnetz Gas in Leipzig is the third-largest natural-gas importer in Germany.File:Porsche Leipzig Kundenzentrum.jpg|Porsche customer center in LeipzigFile:BMW Leipzig MEDIA Download Luftaufnahme 3 max.jpg|BMW production facility in LeipzigFile:160 Jahre Waggonbau in Bautzen.jpg|Bombardier Transportation in Bautzen

Demographics

The population of Saxony began declining around the middle of the 20th century, a process which accelerated after German reunification in 1990. The second decade of the 21st century has seen demographic decline stabilize through immigration. In recent years the cities of Dresden and Leipzig, and some towns in their hinterlands, have had population increases. The following table illustrates the population of Saxony since 1905:{| class="infobox" style="float:right;"

The average number of children per woman in Saxony was 1.49 in 2010, the highest of all German states.WEB,weblink Geburten je Frau im Freistaat Sachsen 1990â2010, Demografie.saschen.de, 2014-10-21, In 2016, the value reached 1.59.Mini baby boom continues with 33-year birthrate high TheLocal.de Within Saxony, the highest is the Bautzen district with 1.77, while Leipzig is the lowest with 1.49. Dresden's birth rate of 1.58 is the highest of all German cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants.

Prehistory

In prehistoric times, the territory of Saxony was the site of some of the largest of the ancient central European monumental temples, dating from the fifth century BC. Notable archaeological sites have been discovered in Dresden and the villages of Eythra and Zwenkau near Leipzig. The Slavic and Germanic presence in the territory of today's Saxony is thought to have begun in the first century BC.Parts of Saxony were possibly under the control of the Germanic King Marobod during the Roman era. By the late Roman period, several tribes known as the Saxons emerged, from which the subsequent state(s) draw their name.

Holy Roman Empire

The territory of the Free State of Saxony became part of the Holy Roman Empire by the 10th century, when the dukes of Saxony were also kings (or emperors) of the Holy Roman Empire, comprising the Ottonian, or Saxon, Dynasty. Around this time, the Billungs, a Saxon noble family, received extensive fields in Saxony. The emperor eventually gave them the title of dukes of Saxony. After Duke Magnus died in 1106, causing the extinction of the male line of Billungs, oversight of the duchy was given to Lothar of Supplinburg, who also became emperor for a short time.In 1137, control of Saxony passed to the Guelph dynasty, descendants of Wulfhild Billung, eldest daughter of the last Billung duke, and the daughter of Lothar of Supplinburg. In 1180 large portions west of the Weser were ceded to the Bishops of Cologne, while some central parts between the Weser and the Elbe remained with the Guelphs, becoming later the Duchy of Brunswick-LÃ¼neburg. The remaining eastern lands, together with the title of Duke of Saxony, passed to an Ascanian dynasty (descended from Eilika Billung, Wulfhild's younger sister) and were divided in 1260 into the two small states of Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg. The former state was also named Lower Saxony, the latter Upper Saxony, thence the later names of the two Imperial Circles Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg. Both claimed the Saxon electoral privilege for themselves, but the Golden Bull of 1356 accepted only Wittenberg's claim, with Lauenburg nevertheless continuing to maintain its claim. In 1422, when the Saxon electoral line of the Ascanians became extinct, the Ascanian Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg tried to reunite the Saxon duchies.However, Sigismund, King of the Romans, had already granted Margrave Frederick IV the Warlike of Meissen (House of Wettin) an expectancy of the Saxon electorate in order to remunerate his military support. On 1 August 1425 Sigismund enfeoffed the Wettinian Frederick as Prince-Elector of Saxony, despite the protests of Eric V. Thus the Saxon territories remained permanently separated. The Electorate of Saxony was then merged with the much bigger Wettinian Margraviate of Meissen, however using the higher-ranking name Electorate of Saxony and even the Ascanian coat-of-arms for the entire monarchy.The Ascanian coat-of-arms shows the Ascanian barry of ten, in sable and or, covered by a crancelin of rhombs bendwise in vert. Thus Saxony came to include Dresden and Meissen. In the 18th and 19th centuries Saxe-Lauenburg was colloquially called the Duchy of Lauenburg, which in 1876 merged with Prussia as the Duchy of Lauenburg district.

Foundation of the second Saxon state

File:Dresden Fuerstenzug 2.jpg|right|thumb|Late 17th and 18th century electors of Saxonyelectors of SaxonyFile:Schloss Moritzburg Winter JM.jpg|right|thumb|Saxony is home to numerous castles, like the Schloss Moritzburg north of DresdenDresdenFile:Dresden. Zwinger & Sophienkirche. - Detroit Publishing Co.jpg|right|thumb|Zwinger in Dresden, 1895]]Saxony-Wittenberg, in modern Saxony-Anhalt, became subject to the margravate of Meissen, ruled by the Wettin dynasty in 1423. This established a new and powerful state, occupying large portions of the present Free State of Saxony, Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Bavaria (Coburg and its environs). Although the centre of this state was far to the southeast of the former Saxony, it came to be referred to as Upper Saxony and then simply Saxony, while the former Saxon territories were now known as Lower Saxony.In 1485, Saxony was split. A collateral line of the Wettin princes received what later became Thuringia and founded several small states there (see Ernestine duchies). The remaining Saxon state became still more powerful and was known in the 18th century for its cultural achievements, although it was politically weaker than Prussia and Austria, states which oppressed Saxony from the north and south, respectively.Between 1697 and 1763, the Electors of Saxony were also elected Kings of Poland in personal union.In 1756, Saxony joined a coalition of Austria, France and Russia against Prussia. Frederick II of Prussia chose to attack preemptively and invaded Saxony in August 1756, precipitating the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War). The Prussians quickly defeated Saxony and incorporated the Saxon army into the Prussian army. At the end of the Seven Years' War, Saxony recovered its independence in the 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg.

19th century

{{see|Kingdom of Saxony}}In 1806, French Emperor Napoleon abolished the Holy Roman Empire and established the Electorate of Saxony as a kingdom in exchange for military support. The Elector Frederick Augustus III accordingly became King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony. Frederick Augustus remained loyal to Napoleon during the wars that swept Europe in the following years; he was taken prisoner and his territories declared forfeit by the allies in 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon. Prussia intended the annexation of Saxony but the opposition of Austria, France, and the United Kingdom to this plan resulted in the restoration of Frederick Augustus to his throne at the Congress of Vienna although he was forced to cede the northern part of the kingdom to Prussia.{{harvp|Pollock|Thomas|1952|p=486}} These lands became the Prussian province of Saxony, now incorporated in the modern state of Saxony-Anhalt except westernmost part around Bad Langensalza now in the one of Thuringia. Also Lower Lusatia became part of Province of Brandenburg and northeastern part of Upper Lusatia became part of Silesia Province. The remnant of the Kingdom of Saxony was roughly identical with the present federal state, albeit slightly smaller.Meanwhile, in 1815, the southern part of Saxony, now called the "State of Saxony" joined the German Confederation.{{harvp|Pollock|Thomas|1952|p=510}} (This German Confederation should not be confused with the North German Confederation mentioned below.) In the politics of the Confederation, Saxony was overshadowed by Prussia. King Anthony of Saxony came to the throne of Saxony in 1827. Shortly thereafter, liberal pressures in Saxony mounted and broke out in revolt during 1830âa year of revolution in Europe. The revolution in Saxony resulted in a constitution for the State of Saxony that served as the basis for its government until 1918.During the 1848â49 constitutionalist revolutions in Germany, Saxony became a hotbed of revolutionaries, with anarchists such as Mikhail Bakunin and democrats including Richard Wagner and Gottfried Semper taking part in the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. (Scenes of Richard Wagner's participation in the May 1849 uprising in Dresden are depicted in the 1983 movie Wagner starring Richard Burton as Richard Wagner.) The May uprising in Dresden forced King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony to concede further reforms to the Saxon government.In 1854 Frederick Augustus II's brother, King John of Saxony, succeeded to the throne. A scholar, King John translated Dante. King John followed a federalistic and pro-Austrian policy throughout the early 1860s until the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War. During that war, Prussian troops overran Saxony without resistance and then invaded Austrian (today's Czech) Bohemia.{{harvp|Pollock|Thomas|1952|pp=510â511}} After the war, Saxony was forced to pay an indemnity and to join the North German Confederation in 1867.{{harvp|Pollock|Thomas|1952|p=511}} Under the terms of the North German Confederation, Prussia took over control of the Saxon postal system, railroads, military and foreign affairs. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Saxon troops fought together with Prussian and other German troops against France. In 1871, Saxony joined the newly formed German Empire.

20th century

File:Fotothek df ps 0000010 Blick vom Rathausturm.jpg|right|thumb|Dresden in ruins. After World War II, over 90 percent of the city centre was destroyed.]]File:UniversitÃ¤t Leipzig - Paulinum â Aula und UniversitÃ¤tskirche St. Pauli (Juli 2012).JPG|right|thumb|Modern architecture at the University of LeipzigUniversity of LeipzigAfter King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony abdicated on 13 November 1918, Saxony, remaining a constituent state of Germany (Weimar Republic), became the Free State of Saxony under a new constitution enacted on 1 November 1920. In October 1923 the federal government under Chancellor Gustav Stresemann overthrew the legally elected SPD-Communist coalition government of Saxony. The state retained its name and borders during the Nazi era as a (Gau Saxony), but lost its quasi-autonomous status and its parliamentary democracy.As World War II drew to its end, U.S. troops under General George Patton occupied the western part of Saxony in April 1945, while Soviet troops occupied the eastern part. That summer, the entire state was handed over to Soviet forces as agreed in the London Protocol of September 1944. Britain, the US, and the USSR then negotiated Germany's future at the Potsdam Conference. Under the Potsdam Agreement, all German territory East of the Oder-Neisse line was annexed by Poland and the Soviet Union, and, unlike in the aftermath of World War I, the annexing powers were allowed to expel the inhabitants. During the following three years, Poland and Czechoslovakia forcibly expelled German-speaking people from their territories, and some of these expellees came to Saxony. Only a small area of Saxony lying east of the Neisse River and centred around the town of Reichenau (now called Bogatynia), was annexed by Poland. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG) merged that very small part of the Prussianprovince of Lower Silesia that remained in Germany with Saxony.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}On 20 October 1946, SVAG organised elections for the Saxon state parliament (), but many people were arbitrarily excluded from candidacy and suffrage, and the Soviet Union openly supported the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The new minister-president Rudolf Friedrichs (SED), had been a member of the SPD until April 1946. He met his Bavarian counterparts in the U.S. zone of occupation in October 1946 and May 1947, but died suddenly in mysterious circumstances the following month. He was succeeded by Max Seydewitz, a loyal follower of Joseph Stalin.{{citation needed|date=June 2016}}The German Democratic Republic (East Germany), including Saxony, was established in 1949 out of the Soviet zone of Occupied Germany, becoming a constitutionally socialist state, part of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact, under the leadership of the SED. In 1952 the government abolished the Free State of Saxony, and divided its territory into three : Leipzig, Dresden, and Karl-Marx-Stadt (formerly and currently Chemnitz). Areas around Hoyerswerda were also part of the Cottbus Bezirk.The Free State of Saxony was reconstituted with slightly altered borders in 1990, following German reunification. Besides the formerly Silesian area of Saxony, which was mostly included in the territory of the new Saxony, the free state gained further areas north of Leipzig that had belonged to Saxony-Anhalt since 1952.

Languages

File:Bautzen Ortschild.jpg|thumb|Boundary sign of Bautzen / BudyÅ¡in in German and Upper Sorbian; many place names in eastern Saxony are derived from Sorbian.]]The most common patois spoken in Saxony are combined in the group of "Thuringian and Upper Saxon dialects". Due to the inexact use of the term "Saxon dialects" in colloquial language, the Upper Saxon attribute has been added to distinguish it from Old Saxon and Low Saxon. Other German dialects spoken in Saxony are the dialects of the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains), which have been affected by Upper Saxon dialects, and the dialects of the Vogtland, which are more affected by the East Franconian languages.Upper Sorbian (a Slavic language) is still actively spoken in the parts of Upper Lusatia that are inhabited by the Sorbian minority. The Germans in Upper Lusatia speak distinct dialects of their own (Lusatian dialects).

Education

Saxony has four large universities and five Fachhochschulen or Universities of Applied Sciences. The Dresden University of Technology, founded in 1828, is one of Germany's oldest universities and University of Applied Sciences, Zwickau founded in 1897 With 36,066 students as of 2010, it is the largest university in Saxony and one of the ten largest universities in Germany. It is a member of TU9, a consortium of nine leading German Institutes of Technology. Leipzig University is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany, founded in 1409. Famous alumni include Leibniz, Goethe, Ranke, Nietzsche, Wagner, Angela Merkel, Raila Odinga, Tycho Brahe, and nine Nobel laureates are associated with this university.